Modern computer operating systems and applications have become increasingly resource intensive when interacting with hardware and software components of the computer system. Although developers continually improve the operation of operating systems and computer applications, as their complexity increases, so does the demand for system resources. An example of a resource-demanding application is an antivirus application. Antivirus applications interact extensively with a computer system's software and hardware components during system scans for malicious software, such as viruses, worms, spyware and other types of malware that threatens security of the computer system.
Some computer applications, including many antivirus applications, periodically scan computer systems to monitor activity and identify malware. Such scans can affect system resource utilization, including server, processor, memory, hard drive and network utilization. In certain instances, computer resource scans may overload the computer system and/or server and impair performance. Accordingly, there is a need for a system architecture and process for efficiently prioritizing scan requests of a computer system.